Piston packing-ring.



E. R. SALES.

PISTOH PACKING RING. AFPtICANJII FILEI IY 9.. lill.

INYNTUH A TTURNEYS Patenfd May 21,1918.

EDWARD B.. BALES, OF CENTBALIA, ILLINOIS.

PISTON PACKING-RING.

Specification o! Letters latent.

Patented May 21, 1918.

Application filed Hay 9, 1917. Serial No. 167,410.

To all whom it may concer/n.'

Be it known that I, EDWARD R. BALEs, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Centralia, in the county of Marion and State of Illinois, have invented a new and Improved Piston Packing Ring, of which the following is a ull, clear, and exact description. A

The invention relates to packing rings adapted to be employed on the pistons of various engines or machines, but is more particularly designed for use on the pistons of locomotive power-reversing gears, airbrake triple-valve pistons, and other devices in which the movements of the piston must be controlled by very small differences of pressure on the respective sides thereof. Piston packing-rings 1n common use, as is well known, are forced against one side of the groove in the piston and thereby prevent leakage around the packing ring of the steam entering the groove at the h1 h pressure side of the ring, by sealing t e ring against the opposite side or lower pressure side of the groove, this action taking place if the pressure is suliicient to overcome the friction of the face of the ring against the cylinder walls, and then only one side of the ring acts to prevent leakage. When the piston must be controlled by a very small difference of pressure on either side of the piston, there is sometimes a considerabie leakage around the packing ring through the oove.

T e prime object of my invention is to provide packing rings and expanding means therefor so correlated as to cause the expandingneans to exert a pressure against the pac g rings in a Vdirection to expand the packing rings obliqnely, whereby to force the same a ainst the cylinder walls and simultaneous y force them laterally against the opposite side walls of the groove, thereby eli'ectually preventing iuid pressure from entering between that side of the groove and side of the ring nearest the high pressure, or from leaving between the ring and the side of the groove nearest the lower pressure. The stated object is attained by employing a pair of packing rings presenting opposlte beveled surfaces at their inner corners and an expanding ring exerting a wedging action on the packing rings at said surfaces to force the packing rings obliqueiy outward. Advanta eously, each packing ring of a pair may e formed of an inner ing rings.

contacting and outer split ring havin outer rings fication in which similar referenceeharacters indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of a piston packing embodying my invention, showing the same in connectlon with 2 is a transverse vertical section on the line 2-2, Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary longitudinal vera piston and a portion of a cylinder;

tical section showing the same form of packing rings as in Fig. 1, but a modified orm of the expanding ring.

The numera 10 indicates a piston of known form having in the illustrated example a pair of annular grooves 11 to receive 30 the packing for effecting a tight` joint between the piston and the walls of the cylinder A or other chamber.

Inasmuch as the the same, it will suiiice to particularly refer to one, it being understood that one set may be employed or several, as desired. Ineach groove 11 a pair of split packing rings 12 is arranged adjacent to each other and at the inner adjacent corners thereon, opposed beveled surfaces 13 are produced converging outwardly. An expanding split ring 14 is disposed within the air of rings 12 and having such a cross section as to exert a wedging l5 action against the surfaces 13 of the pack- In the form shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the expanding ring 14 is of round cross section, while in Fig. 3 I have indicated at 14 an expanding ring triangular 100 in cross section. As the other elements shown in Fig. 3 are identical with the correspondingparts in Fig. 1, the same identifyirgrg reference characters are employed.

h the described arrangement it will be 10i clear that the expansive force of the ring 14, due to the wedging action of said ring against the surfaces 13, will cause the rings 12 to expand obliquely, thus simultaneously moving them into fluid-ti ht engagement i with the cylinder A and with the opposite side Walls of the grooves 11. Thus one ring adeo packing elements and i their appurtenances 1n each groove 11 are 35 'associated ring 12, the sp being positioned approximately 180 apart 12 will eil'ectually seal the high of the packing and the com anlon ring will seal the low pressure side, t ereby overcoming the defect of the common form in which the steam pressure forces the ring away from the high pressure side of the groove in pressing the ring against the low pressure side. In order to prevent leakage between the meeting edges 0f the respective rings 12, I provide in connection with each of said rings, a second smaller packing ring 15 disposed at that outer corner of the said rin 12 op osite the beveled surface 13 thereo The rings 15 are triangular in cross section so that the contacting surface between said rin and the ring 12 to which it pertains will be isposed obliquely as the rings are viewed in cross section. It will be observed from Fig. 2 that a ring 15 breaks joint with its lits 17 18 thereof ressure side or otherwise separated a ro ei' distance.

It is to be noted that t e rings 12 extend radially outward between the rings 15 to present peripheries l ing in the same cylindrical surface with t e said rings 15 whereby to contact jointly with said rings 15 against the cylinder.

I wish to state in conclusion that although the illustrated examples constitute practical means of carrying my invention into effect, I do not limit myself strictly to the mechanical details erein illustrated, 'since manifestly the same can be Aconsiderably varied without departure from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A piston packin including a pair of separate expansible sp it packing rings resenting opposed convergent surfaces at t eir adjacent inner corners and having beveled surfaces at the opposite outer corners, additional s lit rings outside the first rings at the sai outer corners thereof and having corresponding beveled inner surfaces, the first mentioned rings extending between the second mentioned rings to resent peri hcries l ing in the same c lindrical sur ace with t e second mentione ri and a resilient expanding ring acting interiorly on the rst rings at the converging surfaces thereof to expand the packing rings obliquel.

2. piston packing including main expansible split packing rin s, an auxiliary split packing ring associate with said main rings at the outer side. thereof, the respective main and auxiliary rings having obliquely disposed contacting faces and presenting peripheries in the same cylindrical surface, and resilient expanding means acting on said main rings at the interior and exertin pressure thereon to expand the same o li uely, said main and auxiliary rings'brea 'ng joint.

EDWARD R. BA1-ins. 

